The Shoemaker Bugle

By Daniela Galindo

It was a rough start for the JGHS track & field team when there were very few members, but after winter break, as more students joined, their hopes started to rise. Now the team has about 35-40 members.

Since December, coach Andy De La Torre and captain Javier Reynoso have been training with the members in preparation for their first meet, which occurred in late February. There, sophomore Melanie Hernandez (pictured below) placed top 10 in the 3-mile run and qualified for CIF to represent JGHS at Mt. SAC.

A few of the highlights of the team’s second competition for this year at Norwalk on March 10 were that junior Stany Hernandez took 1st place in discus for throwing a disc at 61’ ½”. With an effort of 59′ 3.6”, Jasmine Madina took 2nd place in discus. For the girls shot put throw, Anh Dang took 1st place with a throw of 23’10’’. Mikel Udengwu placed 1st in the Boys Varsity discus with a throw of 116′ 6″ in the competition. Second place went to Gabriel Pasillas, who threw 108′ 10”. Among the boys varsity miles, captain Javier Reynoso (pictured below, with the distance runners) took 4th place. In addition to taking 4th place, he also set a new personal record of 5 minutes, 17 seconds.

During a recent interview with Reynoso, he mentioned that they share great memories from bus rides, especially since they weren’t able to go on bus rides previously due to COVID, and even just attending meets is a great experience, particularly after almost two years of not being able to do so. Additionally, we discussed the goals the team has, such as going to as many competitions as possible and having a good overall performance as a team.

He also noted that the main goal is for every individual to improve. They train hard so they can win against other schools and have personal records at each meet. Communication seems to be the most important key in order for the team to have improvement and win competitions.